Sometimes I like my romances with a touch of rocket fuel. To put it another way, I like science fiction romance, or SFR. I’ve loved it since the original Captain Kirk chased his first alien around the Enterprise way back when, and my tastes probably aren’t going to change any time soon, or on any time-travel adventure.

What is SFR, you ask? It’s a romance with “science fictional elements”, as opposed to a purely contemporary or historic setting. So if a romance includes a space ship, a time-machine, an alternate time-line or aliens visiting the earth, it’s SFR. If there are vampires or werewolves, it’s probably paranormal romance, but there are exceptions to every rule. I know of at least one awesome series that managed to get vampires (and werewolves) into space.

Even in the future, people (or aliens) will fall in love. And if the aliens visit us, well, they won’t be able to resist…at least within the pages of romance. If you can’t wait to explore strange new romantic worlds, take a look at these titles:

Sharon Fisher’s Ghost Planet is science fiction romance that has a hint of M. Night Shyamalan’s movie The Sixth Sense. Psychologist Elizabeth Cole accepts a job as a colonist on a newly discovered world. She expects hardship, but what she doesn’t expect is a search for her own existence, after her death. It’s a shock to discover that she’s fallen in love after she’s died. It’s even more of a shock to realize that she still has to save two worlds.

In The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord, an alien race who barely survives genocide turn to the humanoids with which they share a planet in order to save their vanishing race. They want to preserve their way of life, and hope to find help. Instead, they face that they must change in order to grow and thrive. Their cool logic gives way to the impulse of passion as one of them falls in love with a human in the ultimate clash of cultures.

And then there’s the “Kitty” Katt series by Gini Koch, if you prefer your ship on the funny side of the space lanes. In Touched by an Alien, Kitty interrupts a domestic dispute that turns ugly when the guy gets mad and turns into a winged monster and goes on a killing spree. Then a guy claiming to be from Alpha Centauri shows up and sends the story (and Kitty) for an out of this world rocket ride of romance and fun!

If these titles light you up, there is a fantastic list of classic SFR titles to explore, as well as argue about endlessly, at The Galaxy Express. The list was last updated in June of 2010, so it makes a great starting point! For more recent titles check out the winners of the 2013 SFR Galaxy Awards.